Bruce Braley

Roger Clemens: This Is A High-Tech Lynching!!!!1!!


And I can't remember Dan Duquette's name! But I remember the "GM of Boston," once said that I was in, "the twilight of my career."

Good lord. Bruce Braley did a great job today. He opened his classic trap, and proved that Clemens didn't need B12 injections of any kind. So what was injected in his ass? Hmmmmm.

Well, if you were alive and paying attention in October 1991, you know where the term 'high-tech lynching' came from. I'm glad I am not the only one who remembered it during these proceedings.

Having said that, I feel sorry for Roger. He shouldn't be singled out. And honestly, Congress shouldn't be investigating this unless the Federal government is out to regulate professional sports (which it is not). I love Congressmen Wexler and Braley. But today, they used their superior interrogation skills to prove only a few things that are not under their control:

1. Roger Clemens is not too bright. We Red Sox fans knew this.
2. His ex-trainer, Brian McNamee is a liar and is not qualified nor authorized to administer drugs (for which I believe you need a DEA identifcation number - oh, and it helps to be a DOCTOR).
3. A lot of other baseball players have taken steroids or HGH and have lied about it, but they weren't being grilled like Clemens was.

At least it was fun to watch Repubicans on the committee go out of their way to defent Clemens and spin his story. But it was distressing to see Christopher Shays become unhinged (again) and attack a witness (McNamee) and repeatedly call him a 'drug dealer'. Waxman had to apologize to McNamee on Shays' behalf! It was all entertaining, interesting, and memorable.

Now that the committee has put on this little show, can we get back to the missing White House e-mails, please? Help us Chairman Waxman, you're our only hope. Get back to the crises and hand and back to work.

Highlights of Lurita A. Doan Testimony from NancyPelosi / C-SPAN 3

Thanks to YouTube political video guru, NancyPelosi, we have videos of Doan's testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The hearing lasted from 10am until about 2pm. Cold beers go out to Massachusetts congressman John F. Tierney and Iowa congressman Bruce Braley. Nice work, gentlemen. You nailed her as much as you could in 15 combined minutes of questioning.

Henry Waxman opens the hearing.

Waxman explains that this is not a partisan witch hunt.

Tierney! Tierney! Tierney! He did a great job. A son of Salem. He gets a cold beer from MLH. Symbolically, anyway.

Waxman's turn. Inconsistencies are illuminated.

Bruce Braley's second and final round of questions. Outstanding work. It was clear that Lurita Doan and the Republicans on the committee were sharing the same talking points. Braley clears the record that Administrator Doan met with the Republican congressmen prior to the hearing. Despite spending some time on preparation, the Republicans on the committee (led by Tom Davis) called the hearing a waste of time. They repeatedly charged the democrats of harassing an African-American Republican woman for no other reason than who she is. And also they made fun of the hearings, mocked Chairman Waxman, and charged him of not taking their investigations of Clinton fundraising seriously 10 years ago (they mentioned John Huang). Administrator Doan seemed to be playing with the Democratic congressmen all day. Doan occasionally took mild shots at the questions she received. Her use of the word 'abusing' here is a case in point. She heard Mr. Braley's question the first time. And the key moment in the entire hearing is here. Braley points out that the bulk of the OSC investigation is complete. He asks Doan to confirm that the GSA hosting of the PowerPoint presentation was a violation of the Hatch Act. Thanks to his very quick thinking, he states on the record that Administrator Doan is handed a document and confers with her counsel while the question is being asked. I have never seen that done so swiftly in a congressional hearing before. Score a lot of points for Bruce Braley. A cold beer for you, sir.

Waxman closes the hearing. He points out that Administrator Doan's testimony on March 28th was not complete. She witheld information from Congress that she later testified before the OSC. Waxman asks Doan to resign, which won't happen, of course.

You can tell Lurita A. Doan about how you feel about her lies and her wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars and misuse of federal real estate and resources. She's at lurita.doan@gsa.gov